Owner Quadrant Investment Properties is spending $25 million to reboot the 30-year-old high-rise with a modern design.

It's part of a wave of investment just north of Dallas' booming Uptown district.

"We are trying to open the building up more and make it more inviting," said Quadrant CEO Chad Cook. "We are approximately halfway done. We expect to finish around the end of the first quarter of next year."

Postmodern-style peaked gables are gone from three sides of the Centrum at Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road. And the ground-floor courtyard is getting a complete redo.

A rooftop deck, tenants' lounge overlooking the courtyard and a fitness center are also part of the renovation.

Quadrant bought the 380,000-square-foot Centrum almost two years ago. The investor just purchased a smaller building across the street, the 13-story Park Creek Place at Welborn and Hall.

The 3131 Tuttle Creek tower is leasing up after a top to bottom redo.

(David Woo/Staff Photographer)

Cook said the new owners plan to operate Park Creek Place and the Centrum together to attract more business and retail tenants to the properties. The Centrum is about 60 percent leased; Park Creek Place has only a 10 percent vacancy.

"There is definitely a demand for office space in this area," Cook said. "We like to say we are a value option for Uptown."

Cook said the Oak Lawn and Turtle Creek office buildings are renting at a significant discount from nearby Uptown.

Trey Smith of Cushman & Wakefield says that some businesses are being priced out of the Uptown market, which has the loftiest office rents in the city.

New Uptown office buildings are now asking more than $50 per square foot -- almost twice citywide rental rates.

"The high rents are bumping some people out of Uptown," Smith said. "You are seeing some of those tenants move to the Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn area."

The Turtle Creek corridor predates Uptown as an office market. Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, the first business tenants -- insurance companies, computer firms and real estate companies -- began migrating to the area north of downtown.

Investors have purchased several small buildings in the area hoping to take advantage of the leasing trends.

Abby Development & Construction just acquired the 3333 Welborn Street office building, which is between Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn Avenue. The new owners plan to remodel.

Chicago-based Origin Investments and Dallas-based Blackwatch Partners recently teamed up to purchase the two-building Lee Park Tower I and II, which is on Hall Street near Lee Park.

Built in the 1970s, the 140,000-square-foot high-rise has gotten a total revamp.

"We are probably 60 days away from completing the full renovation, which was a top-to-bottom redo of the building," said Cardinal Capital CEO Gil Besing. "We've been the beneficiary of a lot of good things in the neighborhood."

Veritex Bank, True North Advisors and Metropolitan Capital are among the new tenants in the marble and glass tower.

Design firm Staffelbach handled the makeover.

"We wanted to keep the classical lines of the building," Besing said. "It has great views of downtown and Turtle Creek.

"We've drafted off Uptown, and rents along Turtle Creek are rising."

The Centrum Tower built in the 1980s got a new rooftop deck as part of its redo.

(David Woo/Staff Photographer)

New owner Quadrant Investment Properties is spending more than $24 million to redo the Centrum.

(Quadrant Investment)

The courtyard at the Centrum is being rebuilt for office and retail tenants.